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Enable MP4 (H.264 + AAC) HTML5 video in Firefox on Windows XP without Flash


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On 10/30/2019 at 5:31 PM, grey_rat said:

For K-Meleon is installed greasemonkey-3.9.xpi , but the script is not installed

... I'm sorry to hear that :( ; I'm completely unfamiliar with KM, though... :whistle: If you're using the KM-Goanna3 fork by @roytam1, perhaps try with a different version of GM;

caa:addon/greasemonkey/versions

suggests v3.11 is compatible with Fx 38+, on which Tycho+Goanna3 was forked; unless GM v3.9 is the absolute max version that can be installed in KM-Goanna3...

 It would appear the ViewTube userscript is incompatible with that old a GM version - maybe it could be possible to edit/patch the script to force-make it v3.9 compatible (???); ask around... ;)

Edited by VistaLover
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K-Meleon and userscripts:
yeah an endless drama :-( I don't understand that subject either, as far as xpi-addons are involved, KM-forum posts about it are all more or less confusing, to me too. Does it work, or not?? How much workarounds are needed to get it working, how much functions must be replaced by workaround-macros - or is possibly the whole thing then done ONLY by macros?? And even sometimes doubtful: did the person posting addon instructions really try it himself?

One of the tips given repeatedly was:
the gm_scripts folder must be created manually in the profile, at best just copied over from another Mozilla browsers. But that's probably not the only trick needed??

Wish since years that one of the advanced KM-users would finally figure things out once and for all. Am not the right person for this myself, being stuck on old OS and old KM-version, and shying away from yet another time consuming task on top of the ever growing pile (don't even manage to finally finish some really important favorite macros, and having zero personal experience with userscript addons in Firefox either, it just makes no sense). Although am afraid, some day might be forced to try anyway if no one else does (on a rarely used xp offline machine), to finally figure out a bit more.

What I am only familiar with is the very basic function that KM macros can use: check URL onload, then "readfile" of the local script defined in the macro, and inject the content into the webpage. Over the years I've spend hundreds of hours struggling with that stuff, especially GUIs, with only partial success, and much time and nerves wasted in vain. One of the probs for the macro method is, with local scripts it's not possible to attach them as link, they can only be injected as inline script. Another (huge) prob is the size limit, in current KM "readfile" is allowed only max 64kB, in older ones even just tiny 32kB. That means all those huge youtube-scripts out there are hopeless for this method! (but I absolutely needed it, so the only lousy workaround was to manually chop such a file into 2 parts by notepad, then when called by menu, have the macro read both and stitch together. But less desperate users won't consider such hassles, and also hope on newer KM-versions there are better methods possible - just which??)

 

By the way am using a great old userscript to create a list of direct download links, which is only about 37kB! For my old KM that's a prob, but in current KM it's small enough, so perhaps worth trying. This script only creates normal links to the various video qualities, nothing else. John made a macro for it:
http://kmeleonbrowser.org/forum/read.php?9,142050
My personal version is slightly modified to just plaster all links over the black rectangle, and only on demand. Am very happy with this, and MPClassic.

Thought of this a bit late, since everyone here is only talking about the viewtube script (115kB), and everyone seems to want to watch the videos inside the page. That's a bigger housenumber.

Edited by siria
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  • 1 month later...

Hello,

since a few days the workaround does not work for me anymore. Mp4 videos can no longer be played on youtube and other sites. Does anyone know a solution to continue to play MP4 videos in Firefox on Windows XP?

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx-D-Ssjets

Edit: I found the Error. A few days ago I put the 3GB switch on a trial basis in Boot.ini because I had problems with another program. By deleting the 3GB switch everything works again as usual.

Edited by Morgenrot
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  • 4 weeks later...

At Opera 12.18 some users were able to return Flash Player for Youtube. Modified files Flash Player and script YouTube_force_flash_v7_mod13.js https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m5jm0evmo9hraxi/YouTube_force_flash_v7_mod13.js

file.php?id=4201&mode=view

 

Unfortunately, Flash Player is used to decode VP9 and H264, not FLV. Although this method can be done for the new Chrome and Firefox, where Flash has not yet been removed.

 

Сan add Flash Player. But Youtube doesn 't give away the URL, I 'm not a specialist, added only two lines in the script :)
Flash still runs in Firefox 68. For older computers on Win7 and Linux is a good option.

file.php?id=5665&t=1

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  • 1 month later...

Many months ago I modified my Firefox 52.9.0 running in XP SP3 according to the brilliant instructions given in the first few postings of this thread and got satisfactory results on BBC, ORF and YouTube and other sites. Since end of January however some programmes on the BBC refuse to play, saying that my browser needs updating.

I tested my Firefox on these sites:

https://tekeye.uk/html/html5-video-test-page

http://www.bbc.co.uk/html5

http://web.archive.org/web/20190805082454/https://www.youtube.com/html5

All 8 samples on the tekeye site work aswell as the BBC one. On the archive link I get ticks in all 6 boxes. Theoretically all seems to be in good shape, but then why do some BBC programmes not play? It looks as if my firefox were giving out version information and as a result not being given the desired programme.

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Well it does seem to be a bit of a mish-mash of posts about the "viewtube" extension and viewing YouTube videos online in WMP!
How about -

"Viewing YouTube videos with the "ViewTube" browser extension and XP Windows Media Player"

:dubbio:

 

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On 2/13/2020 at 8:24 PM, Nickmey said:

Since end of January however some programmes on the BBC refuse to play, saying that my browser needs updating....

Theoretically all seems to be in good shape, but then why do some BBC programmes not play? It looks as if my firefox were giving out version information and as a result not being given the desired programme.

Apologies if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're not familiar with the User-agent: header.

All browsers identify themselves to Web servers with a user-agent string that identifies the browser, version, and platform (OS). Unfortunately Web sites (such as bbc.co.uk) often just look at that string, rather than checking whether the browser actually has the capabilities the site needs. And they may not even be consistent from one page to the next at the same site!

Thus, it's sometimes necessary to override the user-agent string (sometimes called "spoofing") to report a different version, or even a different browser entirely, in order to get particular web sites to work. And it often takes quite a bit of trial and error to find a user agent that will make a particular Web site work. You can find more info at this thread:

Of course, the user agent isn't the only possible reason that a video might not play. For example, it could be using a new codec (such as av1) that Adobe Primetime doesn't understand. If that's the case, overriding the user agent won't help - but it's usually a good place to start.

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to get mpeg-4 mime videos to work in firefox apparently i need these 2 set to true or defaulte

media.windows-media-foundation.enabled (it;s not in FF)

but instead of this I got this as default

media.windows-media-foundation.allow-d3d11-dxva         (this was already in FF)

will i have to add this in manually  is it a string or boolean

media.directshow.enabled   which this is

as some sites i goto i have video format not supported, yet on html5 test i have ALL blue ticks

Edited by DrWho3000
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 1/3/2020 at 5:20 PM, grey_rat said:

At Opera 12.18 some users were able to return Flash Player for Youtube. Modified files Flash Player and script YouTube_force_flash_v7_mod13.js https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m5jm0evmo9hraxi/YouTube_force_flash_v7_mod13.js

Holy crap, that's true.

But you are missing one piece of the puzzle there. You also need mr. dansn's opcache/flashproxy for crossdomain spoofing to work.

Once you have that you should:

  1. Download Opera legacy 12 (I'm assuming the portable version here for simplicity)
  2. Go into Settings > Preferences > Advanced
  3. Enable disk cache (in history, and uncheck empty on exit)
  4. Set up an user script folder (in content > javascript options)
  5. Throw the latest YouTube_force_flash_v7_mod15.js in there
  6. In the browser, open about:config and enable "User JavaScript on HTTPS"
  7. Close it.
  8. Delete the folder Data\profile\cache
  9. Extract the opcache folder content inside Data\CacheOp (overwrite if asked)
  10. Put the provided NPSWF32 ini and dll inside App\Opera\program\plugins
  11. Profit!

EDIT: if you have done everything correctly, but after few seconds the video stops with "an error has occurred", check your audio outputs to be enabled (somehow that's a hard requirement)

Edited by mirh
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I have to ask regarding this topic - is there any simple way to overcome the 23:18 video issue (video locks up after 23 minutes) in firefox 52.9.0 with hardware acceleration?

I have tested many different graphics cards: HD5770, HD7850, GTX970, GTX770, GTX660, GTX780Ti, HD6950 and it only really (reliably) worked with HD7970 GHz ed. I guess firefox requires serious shader power to play long youtube videos reliably/without stalling... :-(

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